Gruyère Anise Biscuits

Hello food lovers :-) !

Here in the Gruyère region, the Bénichon is fast approaching.

This traditional Fribourg festival is a day-long celebration where you enjoy all sorts of regional specialities: ham on the bone, cabbage soup and many other delicious things.

Dessert is always the best part: meringues and double cream, bricelets, cuchaule, Bénichon mustard and above all: wonderful anise biscuits!

These little crunchy anise biscuits, wrapped in our pastry packaging, make a lovely gift for your guests.

Preparation time: 10 min - Resting time: 1 night - Baking time: 10 min

For approximately 70 biscuits, you will need:

Ingredients

- 4 eggs

- 250gr sugar

- 1/4 tsp ammonium carbonate

- 15 drops of anise essence

- 25gr anise seeds

- 100gr butter

- 90gr 35% cream or double cream

- 625gr flour

Let's get started with the recipe!

Very important note: your dough must rest overnight in the fridge before being used and shaped!

We will start by cracking 4 eggs into the bowl of our mixer and adding 250gr sugar.

Whisk everything together for about 10 minutes at maximum speed until the mixture turns pale and foamy.

Meanwhile, melt 100gr butter in the microwave at 600 Watt for 30 seconds and once melted, set it aside.

Once the mixture is nicely foamy, add 1/4 tsp ammonium carbonate.

Mix again briefly, just enough to incorporate the ammonium carbonate into your batter.

Next, we will add the fats.

That is the 100gr of butter previously melted, as well as 90gr of 35% cream or double cream.

Give everything another quick whisk to combine.

Once everything is well combined, add 25gr of anise seeds and 15 drops of anise essence to your mixture.

For your information, I found the anise essence at the pharmacy.

Next, remove the whisk and use the flat beater (the K beater), as the mixture will become quite stiff and the whisk won't be able to handle the weight of our anise biscuit dough.

Add 625gr of flour little by little (not all at once) and mix at low speed (otherwise you risk having a flour-covered kitchen :-D).

Once the flour is fully incorporated, simply place your dough in a bowl and cover it with a piece of cling film directly on the surface to prevent a dry skin from forming on top.

Leave everything in the fridge overnight.

The next day, remember to take your dough out 30 minutes to an hour before working with it. It will be much easier to shape your anise biscuits. Preheat your oven to 200°C fan-assisted.

Start by preparing your baking tray or trays by placing a sheet of baking paper on each one.

I used perforated baking trays. They are magical for biscuits and pastry in general, as the heat is much more even and the baking results are great! With these perforated trays, you can bake 2 or even 3 trays at the same time without any issue.

Then take a shallow bowl and pour some sugar into it.

Take small pieces of dough weighing about 40gr each.

Roll each piece into a ball between your hands.

Then shape them into logs — not too thick and not too thin — roughly the size of a little finger.

Once this step is done, cut the logs into pieces of about 12 cm using a knife.

Take each small log and roll it in the sugar.

Once well coated in sugar, make 3 "notches" across your logs with your knife.

Then join the two ends together and place them on your baking tray.

Leave enough space between each biscuit, as they will puff up a little during baking.

Bake your anise biscuits for 7 to 10 minutes, the timing will depend on your oven.

Let them turn a light golden brown, but not too much :-).

And there you have it, your anise biscuits are ready to enjoy.

They will keep for about 2 weeks in a well-sealed tin.

Wishing you a lovely Sunday, food lovers.

Aurélie

P.S.: All the equipment used can be found at the bottom of the recipe.